IMAGINING BLACK DIASPORAS: 21ST CENTURY ART AND POETICS, LACMA
CYPERUS PAPYRUS | 2015
Screenprint on grey and off white cotton
79 x 105cm
21ST CENTURY ART AND POETICS
LOS ANGELES COUNTY MUSEUM OF ARTS
December 15, 2024 - August 3, 2025
Los Angeles, USA
Imagining Black Diasporas : 21st Century Art and Poetics finds aesthetic connections among 60 artists working in Africa, Europe, and the Americas. The exhibition and its catalogue are among the first to examine nearly a quarter century of production by Black artists. The project debuts new acquisitions for LACMA and expands the Pan-African exhibition canon, historically focused on the Black Atlantic, by showcasing artists working along the Pacific Rim. Nearly 70 works of painting, sculpture, photography, works on paper, and time-based media are organized into four themes: speech and silence, movement and transformation, imagination, and representation. Contemporary poets contributed original work to the catalogue, extending the historical use of poetry in Pan-African discourse. Diaspora’s general definition as a displacement from origins excludes all the creativity the term entails. People reinvent their heritage through artistic expressions, transforming diaspora from regional movement into a wellspring of imagination. Through an analysis of Black artists’ aesthetic choices, Imagining Black Diasporas reveals their insights about existence.
Curated by Dhyandra Lawson, Co-curator : Caitlin Spencer